SAN ANTONIO — Most of us get headaches. They're typically an annoyance and go away with time or medication. But when is it time to seek professional help to get rid of them?
"It feels like pain all over. I really can't look at any lights. I can't hear any noises. I just need to lay in my bed," said Susan Glasser who gets frequent migraines. She told us, "I've had to call out of work because I can't look at a computer screen. I need to stay home. Stay in a darkened room."
"The concern is whether a headache is due to a primary headache disorder like migraine or tension type headache, or if it's more of a secondary headache disorder which is usually more concerning something else that's going on," said Dr. Deborah Carver, an Associate Professor at UT Health San Antonio and a Neurologist at University Hospital. She says headaches can become a major concern at times. Dr. Carver added, "If there's any changes in your headache pattern make sure you talk to a doctor about it because that may be a sign of something else that's going on."
About one in every six people get a migraine sometime in their lifetime. Women slightly more than men. But physiologically what happens inside your head to cause the problem? Dr. Carver told us, "The headaches are due to a neuro-chemical response in the brain that causes localized neuro-inflammation, that causes the trigeminal nerve to be inflamed, and then it starts to irritate the blood vessels and triggers this pathway of a migraine."
Some of the common symptoms of a migraine attack include a severe pulsating headache lasting several hours, nausea, a frequency of every few months or more often, and for children, a shorter duration but more prominent abdominal symptoms.
So what causes these migraines? Dr. Carver said, "Stress is a big one that's probably the most common cause or trigger for migraine headaches, weather changes can trigger migraines, hormones can trigger them, and then things like smoking or toxins that we are exposed to can cause them."
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